Celebrating National Women’s Equality Day!

National Women’s Equality Day celebrates a great achievement by the United States in its efforts to create greater equality between men and women in our society and culture. That achievement was the final passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution which was signed into law on August 26, 1920. The amendment prohibits denying the right to vote to U.S. citizens on the basis of sex.

Battling the ‘Women’s Suffrage’ movement

Universal voting rights in the United States was the product of a century-long effort known as the women’s suffrage movement whose members believed that the right to vote is the cornerstone of a democratic system.

An important highlight of that movement was the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York where activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott led the approximately 300 attendees (about 40 were men) in the articulation of a Declaration of Sentiments which began with the assertion that “all men and women are created equal” and listed specific areas where greater equality is needed such as property rights, marriage and divorce law, education and employment opportunities. 

Women’s suffrage was first proposed in the U.S. Congress in 1878. It was submitted in the format of a constitutional amendment. The House of Representatives considered and passed the proposal. However, after this initial action the proposal attracted little national attention.  

War forces change

Circumstances changed with the outbreak of World War I (1914-1918) when large numbers of American men were conscripted into military service and many women replaced them working in factories and mills and as battlefield nurses.

These women were much appreciated and regarded as having contributed greatly to the war effort. They became a powerful incentive attracting support for women suffrage in a time when many people were asking, “How can the U.S. fight for democracy in Europe but deny it to women in this country?”

After the war, Americans began again to consider the vote for women. By the end of 1919, both the House of Representatives and the Senate had approved the amendment so the approval process then moved to the states. Thirty six states were needed then for passage. By the end of July 1920, 35 had ratified.    

A ‘quiet’ signing

Even in the last days before the passage of the 19th Amendment, the political leaders involved with getting the amendment through its complex approval process did so quietly and largely behind closed doors. 

Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation at 8 a.m. at his home in Washington, D.C. While “The New York Times” newspaper reported the signing the next day, there was little or no civil fanfare as had been requested by the suffrage leaders.

Tennessee became the last state to ratify the 19th amendment. There too it was a tight call. One young legislator who had been set to vote against the amendment at the last moment changed his mind at the urging of his mother. On Aug. 26, 1920, his vote for ratification pushed Tennessee into the ‘yes’ column for the passage of the 19th amendment. 

Special designation

Fifty-one years later in 1971, Representative Bella Abzug, a feminist and civil rights’ advocate, entered another bill into the U.S. Congress that designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” Her bill directed the president to authorize and proclaim annually this day in commemoration of the day in August 1920 on which the women of America were given the right to vote. 

This process is followed today with the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen J. Shogan, who as head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is responsible for requesting annually that the sitting president give such a proclamation.

Early state beginnings

Other facts about this topic put voting rights in a larger context. For one, before the 1920 adoption of the 19th amendment some individual states, particularly Wyoming, New Jersey and Utah, had allowed women to vote in particular circumstances.

Some states even allowed women to vote in political elections within the state. Similar efforts at expansion of voting to women were happening in other world countries and particularly in the United Kingdom.

Including ‘all’ women

Black women were a special case because they generally were not considered as part of the women’s suffrage movement. After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment recognized black men as citizens but did not recognize black women.

It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that black women moved in significant numbers onto the rolls of registered voters.

Finally, after the passage of the 19th amendment, there were many ideas and new plans developed to implement the greater vision of the women’s rights movement. 

Most involved efforts that the suffragists had pointed out as needing attention, like equality of pay. Many of these actions have been implemented but many have not been adopted. In the 1960s and the 1970s, the feminism movement became seriously divided among radicals, liberals and conservatives.  

Pushing social action into the political mainstream made change harder to realize and sometimes difficult to champion.